British recipes

A quick, easy and tasty way to enjoy the fruits of your waterfowl hunt. Deviled duck hearts are a British thing, and they’re hearts, dusted in flour seasoned with mustard and cayenne, cooked quickly and served with a watercress salad. A damn good appetizer or snack.

Yep. Walnut ketchup. Ketchup used to be a lot more varied than just tomatoes. This is a classic British recipe made with young, green walnuts – black walnuts, here – results in a sauce that tastes astonishingly like A1 steak sauce. Give it a go!

Elderflower cordial — really a syrup — is a classic use for these incredibly aromatic flowers of spring. Use this to make homemade soda, add it to gin, or make it into a sorbet whenever you want to remember the first warm breezes of the year.

Sitting in a backwater of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, fruitlessly fishing for sturgeon, my friend and guide R.J. casually mentioned that he’d seen herring the last time he’d been fishing on the San Francisco Bay. Herring? Really? My heart jumped. Hesitantly, I asked if he would take me out fishing for them. Ninety-nine guides out of

I have a thing for pigeons. They are super fun to hunt, and, when you hunt them on rural ranches where the birds eat grain and other wholesome foods, they are fantastic to eat. The British know this, which is why I take my cue from them in this recipe for roast pigeon.

In the pantheon of meatballs this is one of the best. Going by the unfortunate name “faggots” (or the mystifying “savoury ducks”), these are really just damn good meatballs, delicately spiced and with a bit of liver tossed in.

Bangers and mash. Homely as it may be, I love this British classic — especially when the sausages are homemade. I made these from venison, but you can use pork, beef, or really whatever. Here’s how to make them.